1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for implementing an auction using calendar information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Much has been written about Internet auctions, where interested buyers submit bids to purchase products over the Internet. One of the more successful and profitable Internet companies is Ebay, Inc., which allows sellers to auction goods and products by requesting that buyers submit bids for their goods and products. Interested buyers may then submit bids to purchase the auctioned product. Internet sites also allow for reverse auctions where interested buyers of a product can request that sellers of the product submit bids over the Internet to sell the desired product.
Although the use of the Internet to auction goods and products is well established, less established is the auctioning of services that are purchased for specific time slots. For instance, a person may want to purchase a professional service for one or more calendar time slots. Alternatively, professionals may want to auction their services for available time slots. In enabling the auctioning of services, the time availability of the person requesting bids for the service must be taken into account as the service cannot be offered or provided for times when the bid requestor is unavailable.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system that enables the auctioning of services for calendar time slots so as to ensure that bids are submitted for those times that the bid requester is available to receive or offer the service.